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The following sample of equity pleading in the courts of the far West is to be found in a vol untary petition by a debtor in insolvency : The learned counsel in citing the causes that led to the financial downfall of his unfortunate client, alleged the following : — '• That in consequence of wet season, grain dround ing out, and dry season, and depreciation of the circulation of money, and low prices for wheat, your petitioner has become, and is insolvent."

A HINT TAKEN'. Strange a successful lawyer should be shy! Ami yet how often, in affairs of love, The tongue its happy cunning will belie; As pretty Claire's experience may prove. She knew that Jack adored the very ground Her dainty feet had walked on. Yet in vain She gave him hints, and sweet excuses found Long arguments most tender to maintain. At last a happy thought! She asked, one day. If he choiee books upon the law would lend. "He sure," she told h1m in the gravest way, "Delighted I shall be with all you send." "Pray name," he said, " the books you wish to read, And them with utmost pleasure I'll procure For you." " ' The Laws of Partnership,' indeed, And ' Marriage,' " she replied with smile demure. Then as she stood with half averted head, Her laughing eyes by wondrous lashes hid, "Supposing," with a sudden fire, he said To her, " we make them for ourselves? " They did. Caroline H. Thayer, in Munsey's Mag.

The following clipping from " Reynold's Newspaper," published in London, in the issue of February 4, 1894, would seem to indicate that in England not only must a suitor come into court with "clean hands," but also with a clean face : — Fined Five Shillings for a Dirty Face. — "Contempt" of Court. — At the Colne Police Court the other dky, Thomas Barley, moulder, Colne, ignorant of the shock he would inflict on the judicial mind of the administrative Bench, appeared before their worships fresh from the moulding shop. He turned up " as black as a nigger," and gave one the impression that he had just been sweeping his dwelling-house chimney, which, as a matter of fact, he was summoned for having on fire. However, he had to listen to an indignant flow of language from

the chairman's lips, and instead of only being ordered to pay the costs, got 5s. put on the top^)f it for not washing his face.

LITERARY NOTES. Harper's Magazine for May is strong in fiction. Besides the fifth installment of Mr. Du Maurier's novel, "Trilby." which grows more delightful at each step, there are the first chapters of a charming two-part tale of Kentucky life before the war, by James Lane Allen, and six short stories. These are "The Miracle of Tisha Hofnagle," by R. C. V. Meyers; "At Cheniere Caminada," by Grace King; "A Note of a Philogynist," by Marion Wilcox; "The Exiles," by Richard Harding Davis: "A Kinsman of Red Cloud," by Owen Wister; and "The End of an Animosity," by L. Clarkson.

There are several contributions to the May Atlantic worthy of more than common note. One of them, " From Blomidon to Smoky," is the first of a series of four articles by the late Frank Bolles. The papers represent his last studies of nature, and were his last literary work. They were all the outcome of a summer excursion through Nova Scotia in 1893. The memory of Francis Parkman is honored by articles from his fellow-historians, Justin Winsor and John Fiske. Gilbert Parker, the young Anglo-Canadian, whose stories are coming more and more into notice, contributes a tragic tale of the Hudson Bay Company, " Three Commandments in the Vulgar Tongue." Mrs. Deland's serial, " Philip and his Wife," proceeds, in company with attractive papers of literature, art, and travel.

In the May Scribner's Magazine, F. J. Stimson writes a brief essay on " The Ethics of Democracy" with particular application to liberty — an essay that is of unusual significance at the present time when socialistic laws are so much discussed. Mr. Stimson has classified the laws of this kind which have been recently added to the statutes of various States.

A great Grant number, in token of General Grant's birthday. April 27, describes in a word McClure"s Magazine for May. General Horace Porter, a member of Grant's staff, his Assistant Secretary of War, and. during the first term of his Presidency, his private secretary, writes of his personal traits, particularly of his truth, courage,